We plan to post the August 2003 Internet monthly update to our five monthly update websites on Monday, July 29th.
The August 2003 disk update will be processed Monday, July 28th and Tuesday, July 29th.
Disks will be shipped Tuesday, July 29th. You should have the August Update in your office by Thursday, July 31st. Unless you have made arrangements to purchase your diskettes, please return your June disks ONLY AFTER you have successfully installed this July 2003 Update. June disks are your backup in case you should have problems installing the June edition.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Subscribers who are receiving disks can save up to $80 per year by switching to updates by Internet. Please read the last part of this bulletin for full details.
Compulife is moving forward with some new marketing campaigns and improvements to our Internet engine technology. The two areas converge and so the following is a detailed description of what we are doing.
Effective July 1st Compulife will be cancelling its referral program which allows an agent to receive 6 free months of Compulife by referring a new customer. There are two reasons for doing so.
First, Compulife's new advertising campaign will focus on paying a prospective customer $5 just to TRY our software. Full details are available at our website www.compulife.com.
The idea was sparked by a automotive marketing program where dealers were offering people $10 to test drive a vehicle. I liked the idea and wondered how we could use the concept to attract attention to the Compulife program. The problem was if someone asked for a trial, how did we know they really tried it?
In response we came up with a way for the trial user to demonstrate they had "tried" the program. If a first time trial user completes a simple 5 minute exercise within 5 days then we pay the $5.
More important, if the trial user buys Compulife within 5 days of that, they can take a 25% discount in price. A number of agents have already acted on this offer even though our ads have not yet appeared in print.
Second, we are introducing a new program for our authorized web providers who have been the source of a number of new customers for Compulife. We believe that our authorized web providers can benefit from a more aggressive marketing program that gives them more opportunity to add customers for their web services. Further, we didn't want their offerings to conflict with our new $5 test drive program, and so we needed to eliminate the possible overlap.
Compulife will continue to honor the previous referral program for the small number of individuals and organizations who had been the source of multiple referrals of new customers. However, if the referred agent acts on the $5 promotion, and also takes the 25% discount, then the referral credits to those individuals and organizations will be adjusted accordingly.
There is little doubt that agent and agency use of the Internet will grow in the years to come. It is Compulife's intention to be an aggressive and key player in the evolution of the Internet insurance market and we hope to help our authorized web providers to be the most succesful players in that market.
The backbone of Compulife's offerings on the Internet is our "Authorized Web Provider" program. Authorized web providers are organizations who offer internet hosting services targeting the life insurance community. This new program will enhance their position.
Until now Compulife did not permit agents who purchased the Compulife "Term4Sale - Agent Edition" to have access to on-line comparisons for their website. This will change new, first time personal use agent customers of Compulife.
Effective immediately, anyone who is a first time subscriber to Compulife may purchase the Compulife "Term4Sale - Agent Edition" for only $99. Having done so, they can have the Compulife internet quote system connected to their web site by one of our authorized web providers. The following are the three authorized web providers listed at our website:
The reason we refer to this as the "Internet Starter Program" is because at the end of the initial "Term4Sale - Agent Edition" subscription, the Compulife subscriber must renew and upgrade to the "Personal Use Edition" of the full Compulife program at the going price (currently it's $199 per year).
For those who say "I knew there was a catch", here's the catch breaker. The offer is good until the end of the INITIAL "Term4Sale - Agent Edition" subscription. That initial subsription can be up to 5 years in total duration.
And that's even better news. Each additional year added to to the "Term4Sale - Agent Edition" subscription is at only 50% of the first year price. A one year subscription to "Term4Sale - Agent Edition" is $99 but a two year subscription is only $149 ($50 more). Here are the subscription periods available:
This isn't a catch, it's an opportunity to save.
Existing "Term4Sale - Agent Edition" subscribers will not be disadvantaged by this new authorized web provider offer. If you act now, before paying your next renewal to the Term4Sale agent edition, you are permitted to contact an authorized web provider and have your Internet website added immediately.
MORE IMPORTANT: Your next renewal will be treated as if you were a first time subscriber to Compulife. You can go ahead and renew for a new one to five year period, and you can continue to have Compulife's internet comparisons on your website. At the end of that subscription, just as for those who purchase the "Internet Starter Program", you must renew as a Compulife personal use subscriber in order to maintain your web comparisons.
During the 2000 presidential election it was suggested by Democratic "talking points" that candidate George Bush added Dick Cheney as his running mate in order to add "gravitas" to the ticket. Gravitas means weight or credibility.
Nothing says gravitas at your website like "real-time term comparisons". When an existing client or a new prospect can use your web site to do a real-time, personalized comparison in seconds, their view of your insurance service is strengthened considerably.
Now you can add that capability for less than $100 per year. Two of Compulife's web providers are priced at $99 per year, and our third web provider is currently priced at only $15 per month.
For crying out loud, if you have a website and you haven't at least TRIED live term quotes at your website, what is holding you back?
Please remember, you don't have to quote companies that you don't represent. Compulife's authorized web providers can reduce the scope of your comparisons to those companies that you do business with.
And please don't forget that ANY Compulife subscriber is entitled to a free listing at our extremely popular www.term4sale.com website. If you haven't checked it out, please do so. We recently crossed the 250,000 hit count (since we began tabulating hits on January 1, 2002).
Compulife is moving forward with improvements to our Internet engine. These improvements will be introduced to the Term4Sale website and will be available to you at your website should you want them.
As you may already know, apart from being able to select a 10 year or 20 year term comparison, you can also select multiple categories in your Windows version of Compulife. For example, you can tell the Compulife system (including the Term4Sale - Agent Edition) that you want to compare 10, 15 and 20 year term products showing the top 20 in each category.
The improved Internet engine for consumer use will add "multiple category" as a selection. At the www.term4sale.com website that selection will bring up a comparison showing the lowest cost 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 year and Term to 100 products. Each category will show the 6 least expensive plans for that category.
In the version available through our Internet web providers, the web provider will be able to specify the total number of categories you want in your multiple category option, and up to 36 total results for the multiple categories. For example, if you only want two categories in your version, such as 10 and 20 year, you can have up to 18 results for each of those categories. If you want 6 categories in your comparison, you will get 6 results for each category.
We think this new feature will be so popular for some agent websites, that many agent customers will tell their web provider to simply eliminate the option of selecting categories, and have their default comparison show the multiple category results.
Another important option for those who have our Internet term comparisons will be the spreadsheet option. Your authorized webprovider will be able to add a spreadsheet button to your comparison results permitting up to six products to be compared, side by side, for up to 40 years. You will be able to pre-specify the maximum number of products in the spreadsheet (up to a total of 6).
For example, if your web visitor runs a 10 year term comparison they would be able to click a "spreadsheet" button in the comparison results and have the first six 10 year products in a Pick 6 (or whatever you call it) spreadsheet. Alternately, if you wanted to limit it to 4 products, it would be 4 (maximum of 6).
If you combine the multiple category comparison with the spreadsheet function, then the maximum total of 6 can apply but your spreadsheet could have the 1st two 10 year products, followed by the 1st two 20 year products, next to the first two 30 year products. Once again, these functions wil be under your control subject to the maximum limits.
Yes we can do all this because we are already doing it.
Compulife currently offers an "Agency Version" of our Internet web engine which does all of this now. The difference is that the Agency Version was designed to permit agencies to provide an on-line comparison tool which their agents can use. And just like the Compulife program you use, it allows you to pick whatever products you want in your spreadsheet.
But consumers are NOT agents and it remains Compulife's deeply held view that a successful term comparison web site for consumers must be a site that is simple to use and uncomplicated. The reason term4sale.com has been so popular is because it has remained a "brute force" simple web site.
It is easy to design and build complicated software. It is hard to make powerful software that is easy to use. www.term4sale.com is easy to use which is exactly what the consumer needs.
We believe that these new options will give our Internet web providers important new tools to help build their web businesses. The new options, combined with the new "Internet Starter Program", will help Compulife and our web providers grow and better serve our customers.
Our programmers are also working on adding the "Health Analyzer" to the agency version of our internet engine. This will give an agent using that software, through his or her agency, the ability to generate the same results that agents now get using that feature in our Windows program.
At this point Compulife does not intend to add "Health Analyzer" to the consumer version of the web engine. Our concern is that internet web services for consumers should not be substitutes for the guidance which an agent provides. Most consumers have trouble understanding the difference between 10 and 20 year term and so the simpler and easier the term quote service is to use, the better. Having said that, Compulife will continue to monitor the market and we will make the changes needed to satisfy our customers and their clients.
A new option has been added to individual product printouts and the option will be introduced to our program with the first midmonth update of July.
The option is called "Product Detail" and permits you to display some of the underlying information for the product. When the option is selected the "print preview" window automatically opens displaying the following information:
Date of Rate Card: Rate per thousand: Face amount: Rate per thousand:
Monthly Premium: Product comments: (up to four lines)
Agent comments: (up to four lines)
Date entered by Compulife:
Date last changed by Compulife:
Total premium w/o Policy Fee:
Policy Fee:
ŠTotal Premium:
Premium band used:
Semi-Annual Premium:
Quarterly Premium:
You can then print or create a PDF file of this page. The emphasis on the page is technical in nature and is more of a reference page for the agent than a presentation for the consumer. If there are additional bits of information you would like to see added to this agent reference material, please let us know.
We have also been working on two additional improvements for Pick 12 printing and some of that will also be released with our first mid- month update in July.
The first enhancement is simple and has to do with filing a small number of products to Pick 12. The logic for the print format is that the software evenly divides the space up for each column of information, and spreads the columns evenly across the page. This works great when you have 6 or more products, but if you only placed two products into the spreadsheet, then the columns are far apart.
The new option will allow you to select "left justification" meaning that if you have less than 6 columns of products in "portrait" mode, or less than 12 columns in "landscape mode", the columns will be aligned to the left of the page leaving the right hand side of the page vacant. The space allocated for each column will be the space allowed as though there were 6 columns for portrait, or 12 columns for landscape. If you liked the previous format do not select the option.
The second enhancement will allow you to change and modify the font and color for initial versus renewal premiums in a comparison. For example, if you wanted to have a bold font for the premium during the level premium period, and a normal or italicized font for the renewal period, that option will be there. For those with color printers, you might want to show the initial level premium in green, and the renewal premiums in red. The choice will be yours with the new option.
Work is completed for allowing you to file a multi-life quote into Pick 12 but June has been a busy month and this new version of our program will be offered in our midmonth updates for July.
With this option you have the ability to create a Pick 12 quotation showing the total premiums for two people. You will also be able to view and print the individual premiums for each of the two people.
More important, this new capability gives you the ability to create a comparison of multiple companies, using the multi-life function, where each of the multiple companies has the EXACT combination of premium categories that you believe each person can qualify for and which you want to compare from company to company.
These new features will only be offered in Windows. The option will not exist in our DOS program.
Once again, while we have no plans to eliminate our DOS software in the short term, and intend to keep it compatible with our database, the DOS program is falling further and further behind the Windows software in capability.
We next plan to go back to the comparison and allow the comparison of up to a total of 5 individuals on a multi-life basis. As we mentioned earlier, some companies allow the discount for husband and wife, but not for business partners. Many that do allow the discount for business partners, will allow the discount for more than 2 partners. The multi-life comparison button for non-spouse will eventually ask how many of the clients to do the comparison for, and give total premiums for that group. And yes, you will be able to file that group of 2, 3, 4 or 5 individuals into the Pick 12. Once this function is completed, multi-life will be wrapped up.
Compulife has already received some testimonials from customers using our software and who participate in the www.term4sale.com listings. If you have some kind thoughts about Compulife and/or Term4Sale, and you would be willing to take the time to put them in writing, we'd like the opportunity to also include you in this new webpage that we will be adding to our website.
For those who update by Internet, Compulife has gone to great lengths to provide you with redundancy in our websites. Our main website is:
However, we keep another completely separate website, on a completely different server, in a completely different country, at:
Whatever we update to compulife.com, we also update to compulife.us or compulife.cc. If one website goes down, for whatever reason, the other is ready to serve you. That includes both monthly and mid-month updates.
For those doing monthly updates by Internet, we rely on three other websites to supply monthly updates. These are automatically checked and used by our automatic Internet update software.
For those not wanting to return disks there are two ways to eliminate the problem.
1. Switch to obtaining monthly updates by Internet.
Not only will you eliminate the expense and hassle of returning disks, you will save $80 per year in subscription fees.
To switch to Internet monthly updates, go to our webpage www.compulife.com and select the last menu choice "Forms, applications, instruction tutorials, etc." Under the section "License Agreements", the third license is the "Internet Update Endorsement". Print the endorsement. Once you have it, please read it carefully, especially the part where you agree that you have successfully downloaded and processed our "mid-month updates". If you haven't done that before, call us and we'll be happy to take you through the procedure. It's easy.
2. Disk Purchase Program
The other way to avoid returning the disks and the disk box each month is to pre-purchase them for $21 per year ($1.75 per month). Once you do that you can keep them for future reference, throw them away or return them for a credit (once each year) when you are invoiced for the following year. $21 costs you less than mailing back disks each month.